Please contribute generously in order to ensure the continuity of our website InshaAllah.
What is the ruling on watching some programs, including Islamic ones, on unofficial YouTube channels? They were originally TV programs, and some of them are on channels which write “All rights reserved” on their programs; in the case of some other channels, I do not know whether they put copyright on their programs are not.
Praise be to Allah.
Academic material, inventions, books, programs and apps usually write “All rights reserved” at the beginning. What is meant by this phrase is that the intellectual property rights and patents connected to this product are protected and reserved for the author or producer of this work.
Some scholars have stated that reserving rights for the authors or producers does not mean that it is not allowed to copy these products, or to watch them, photocopy them or download them – in whatever format – if that is done for the purpose of personal benefit.
But if the aim is to make a profit and trade in that product, by publishing and distributing it, that is prohibited, because it is a transgression against the financial rights of the author or producer.
We have previously discussed the Islamic rulings on this issue in the answers to questions no. 237588 and 226230 .
Based on that, there is nothing wrong with listening to and watching these programs, and benefitting from what they contain of goodness. It is all the same whether the authors stated that all rights are reserved for them or not.
If there is any sin, it is on the one who published or posted it, not on the viewer.
And Allah knows best.